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A Galveston County woman has filed suit against a La Marque apartment complex, claiming it was aware one of its employees is a registered sex offender who then allegedly raped her 14-year-old daughter on its premises six months ago.

The mother and daughter, referred to as Jane and Sally Doe respectively in court documents, accuse DJP Holdings LLC, which is doing business as La Mark Apartments, of carelessly hiring and retaining Juan Lauderdale as a resident maintenance worker.

The suit was filed in Galveston County District Court on June 15.

Lauderdale and apartment manager Damien J. Patrick are named co-defendants in the case.

“Defendants DJP Holdings LLC d/b/a La Mark Apartments and Damien J. Patrick knew or should have known of Juan Lauderdale’s dangerous and exploitative propensities as a child sexual abuser, and despite such knowledge, negligently retained (Juan) Lauderdale and failed to warn those coming into contact with him, including minor plaintiff and the minor plaintiff’s family, of (Juan) Lauderdale’s propensities,” the original petition states.

The suit claims that Lauderdale was already on the list of registered sex offenders in connection with the sexual assault of a young girl in 1996 when the apartment management entrusted the La Mark property to his care.

Jane Doe alleges Lauderdale, 32, brutally and repeatedly sexually assaulted her daughter at knifepoint for an unspecified number of hours on Dec. 29, 2008, after he brought the teen to his unit for a tattooing session.

Law enforcement officials in the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area arrested Lauderdale in Somerville a month after the alleged attack.

The suspect was then turned over to Galveston County and indicted on Feb. 28 for aggravated sexual assault with a child and failure to register as a sex offender as a result of the incident.

He remains in the Galveston County Jail.

Consequently, the suit evokes the writ of respondeat superior against the apartment complex and Patrick.

The elder plaintiff insists her daughter was negatively impacted by the encounter with Lauderdale.

“As a direct and proximate result of the sexual assault and the negligent conduct of the defendants, minor plaintiff suffered severe and permanent emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, and other psychological injuries,” the suit says. “These affects are permanent and will abide with the minor plaintiff for her entire life.”

The plaintiffs seek restitution for the girl’s medical treatment in addition to a jury trial.

Houston attorney Jennifer H. Kahn is representing the plaintiff.

The case has been assigned to Galveston County 122nd District Court Judge John Ellisor.

A Las Vegas man accused of killing a 7-year-old girl in 1994 told a judge Wednesday morning that he is not guilty.

Gregory Wallen, a convicted sex offender, was ordered to be held without bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 1.

Wallen was arrested Monday in Pahrump, more than 15 years after the disappearance and slaying of Diana Hernandez. Her body was found in a trash bin near the Sandpiper Apartment complex at Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway.

Detectives went through a list of registered sex offenders and matched Wallen’s name to the list of volunteers who helped search for Hernandez when she went missing. Police said Wallen’s DNA matched evidence found on the girl’s body.

Wallen had been accused of sexual assault in 1992, but had not been convicted and was not added to the registry until 1999.

A convicted sex offender has been charged with attempting to murder and rape a woman in Barre more than a year ago. Authorities say DNA evidence played a part in identifying the suspect in this vicious crime which is very similar to a sex crime that sent him to prison 16 years ago.

Police say they had little to go on after a 50-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and her throat slashed in her Barre apartment in March 2008.

The victim said the attacker was a slender African-American wearing a dark sweatshirt and hoodie but she had never seen him before.

But Wednesday, after 16 months of investigation, police say they have enough evidence to charge Ed McAdoo Johnson, 48, with the crime.

“At the time he was identified by people in the area, so he was a suspect from the beginning,” Washington County Prosecutor Tom Kelly said.

Police say Johnson was the victim’s neighbor and knew who she was through an ex-girlfriend. Police say the case got stronger when Johnson lied to them and others about his whereabouts at the time of the crime, tried to get others to provide an alibi for him, and was seen minutes before and after the crime near the apartment. Then when saliva samples on the victim produced DNA evidence– Johnson was charged.

“Evidence,” Kelly said. “Mitochondrial DNA. Three labs have examined two pieces of evidence and have not excluded Mr. Johnson.”

Police did not have to go far to arrest Johnson. He was already in prison facing charges that he exposed himself in public several times.

It’s all part of a 30-page crime record that could bring Johnson a life sentence as an habitual offender if he is convicted of the new charges.

Johnson was ordered held on $200,000 bail on all the pending charges.

Johnson’s record shows that when the woman was attacked in Barre he had been out of prison only eight months after serving 13 years for kidnapping a woman he had never met off a street in Montpelier and holding a knife to her throat during an attempted sexual assault. If he goes to trial on these new charges it is possible prosecutors would be permitted to tell the jury about that case because it is so similar to the new one.

A convicted Megan’s Law offender is accused of dragging a teen into the woods and trying to rape her at knifepoint.

David Helsel, of Altoona, was arrested after a short manhunt Tuesday night and is facing numerous charges, including indecent assault.

Helsel was convicted previously of rape and is listed on the Megan’s Law Web site as a sex offender.

Altoona police said Helsel approached a group of juveniles — two girls and three boys — at the Oakridge Cemetery on 10th Street. Helsel claimed he worked at the cemetery and blamed the group for knocking over tombstones. When the juveniles tried to walk away, Helsel punched one of the boys in the face, police said.

Soon after, police said Helsel allegedly grabbed the two girls and forced them to enter a wooded area about a block away. There, Helsel pulled out a knife and assaulted both teens before one managed to escape, police said.

The girl called police, who arrived moments later to find Helsel standing over the other girl, who was partially nude.

Helsel fled the scene but officers caught him after a chase, police said. He remains at the Blair County Prison on $500,000 bond.

The girl was taken to Altoona Regional Hospital, where she was examined and released.

Anthony Curran, 28, who was convicted of rape in 2002, is alleged to have sneaked into a house at night through the unlocked front door and raped a 32-year-old woman after getting into her bed as she slept.

And in a second attack he raped a woman aged 31 on waste ground after offering to walk her home from a seafront nightclub in the early hours of the morning, Newcastle Crown Court was told yesterday. Curran, of Ridley Avenue, Wallsend, denies two counts of rape – the first on December 9, 2007 in Cullercoats and the second on August 3 last year in Whitley Bay, both North Tyneside.

He said he had never been to the house where the first attack took place but has given no explanation for two hairs found in the victim’s bed which matched his DNA profile. He maintains the second woman consented to sex.

Prosecutor Penny Moreland told the jury Curran was a sexual predator who had targeted and taken advantage of two vulnerable women.

“His offending you may think is not about an overwhelming sexual urge because at the time of both these offences he had a girlfriend with whom he had sexual relations,” she said .

“You may think it is about the exercise of force and control over his victims, his victims’ fear when they attempt to resist. It is the act of rape, not sex, that is his motivation in offending.”

The court was told the victim of the Cullercoats attack had gone to bed, leaving her partner asleep on the sofa in the living room.

At 6am she had become aware of someone behind her in bed and presuming it to be her partner, drifted back to sleep, but became alarmed when she could feel cold outdoor clothing against her skin.

She was raped after being pushed over on to her front, her face being forced into the pillow so she could hardly breathe. She managed to turn back over and bite her attacker on the hand causing him to recoil and giving her the chance to scream for her boyfriend. The man then ran downstairs and was grabbed in he hallway by the victim’s partner but managed to wriggle away.

Investigations revealed the attacker had armed himself with a two kilo weight which had been in the garden but which was recovered inside the house.

Curran – whose mother lived in Cullercoats – was arrested eight months later after he is alleged to have raped the woman in Whitley Bay. The trial continues today.

A 62-year-old man who begged the judge at his trial to have him put him to death for the rape and murder of a young woman has been executed by lethal injection in Alabama, prison officials said Friday.

Jack Trawick was executed late Thursday after having been convicted of the murder of a 21-year-old woman in October 1992.

Local media reported that he had confessed to the murders of three other young women. Having been sentenced several times in the past, his lawyer had asked in vain that Trawick should not be paroled until he had followed a program for sex offenders.

All appeals to halt his execution were dropped, although his lawyers continued to insist that he was suffering from a mental illness.

Trawick was the fifth person to be put to death by lethal injection this year in the state.

A homeless man has been charged in the brutal rape of a woman in Downtown Memphis.

It happened in a downtown office building, Monday, June 8, 2009. According to investigators, a homeless man was let into the building to use a restroom. Police say the man became violent at some point while in the building and bound a woman’s mouth and hands. Investigators say he slammed her head into the toilet and raped her.

Memphis Police Detective Monique Martin says 44 year-old Lewis Young was named as the suspect in the case, during the investigation. Officers, Martin says spotted Young walking along the 600 block of Madison Avenue, around 3:00 a.m., Tuesday and arrested him.

Young has been charged with aggravated rape, especially aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Police say Young’s rap sheet is about 100 pages long with charges including sexual battery, burglary and robbery.

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin said, “This is a prime example of what is wrong with our justice system. The legislative body in Nashville has had opportunity after opportunity to fix this problem with tougher sentencing. They have failed to address our concerns and now another victim is scarred.”

Jackson police have arrested a man they believe raped and robbed a woman early this morning.

Terry Ware, 38, of Jackson, has been charged with aggravated rape and aggravated robbery in the attack, according to a news release from the Jackson Police Department.

The woman told police she was leaving Preston Alley and walking across Railroad Street around 1:40 a.m. when a stranger jumped out of the bushes and grabbed her from behind.

The man demanded money, put his arms around her throat and threw her to the ground, the news release said.

He then held a sharp object to her throat and sexually assaulted her.

The man took a cell phone from the woman’s purse before leaving the scene.

About 30 minutes later, police Sgt. Greg Slack saw a man, later identified as Ware, in the 200 block of Jackson Street. He matched the description the woman had given police, and she later identified him as her attacker.

The woman suffered a fractured left shoulder from being thrown to the ground and was taken to a local hospital by EMS.

Ware is a registered sex offender who was released from state prison in December, the news release said. He served time for attempted rape in 1991 and aggravated burglary and aggravated rape in 1993, both of which occurred in Jackson.